Sunday 23 October 2011

Forward Planing

While the lights are red, an opportunity arises to take a photo of the Seahorse Pub, a pub that used to be part of the Smiles brewery chain, but had two features that distinguished from the Brewery tap across the road: a choice of non-Smiles beers and the Smiles Exhibition didn't run out as often

Sadly, someone cycling through a red light ruins the shot. Why is he doing it.
It starts to make sense: by cruising through early he avoids the problem of getting from the left hand lane to the right hand lane while two lanes of vehicles are trying to push through.
Of course, that leaves the problem of waiting at the bottom of St Michael's hill for the lights to change. Clipped in to the pedals, he either has to unclip and put a foot down, or do a track stand.
Or there's option three: lie down and take a rest. This provides an opportunity to give his cardiovascular system and his legs the rest they need before commencing the St Michael's Hill climb

5 comments:

thescouselander said...

Red light jumping, falling off - just sums up this riders incompetence. At least no one else was injured.

SteveL said...

It's a hard junction to get in lane for because cars going straight on will do that; you need to get into the RH lane. You can just do it in the ASL and cruise along; the work doesn't begin until you head up the hill. There the curve right to Horfield Road is worse as you can easily get left hooked by cars going straight up St Michael's hill.

He should have unclipped though. Not just to avoid having his fall preserved for posterity, but because the push-off would have offered a better start.

copitorojo said...

The more I read this site the more suspicious I become. How did a committed van driver like yourself learn what the term 'trackstand' means?

SteveL said...

@copitorojo : we know what it is because when waiting in the ASL -our ASL- we see cyclists go past our van and trackstand.

We know the concept "staying on your pedals until the lights change". It's like using the clutch and accelerator rather than any brake, which lets you come off the lights earlier.

Question is: did the tax-dodger in this photo series know what a trackstand is?

Mike Hunt said...

@SteveL
Winston Churchill abolished road tax in 1937. VED is a tax on vehicles and none of it goes directly towards roads.
Of course you could apply the same "tax disc" rules to bicycles that are applied to vehicles which would put them into the lowest category based on emissions and the "tax disc" would cost nothing.
But given that 83% of cyclist's own car's...............